


next to the mausoleum

by theriveroflight



Series: From Under the Eiffel Tower: Spin the Record [4]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Based on a Fall Out Boy Song, Multi, Past Character Death, Songfic, graveyards
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:14:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27838927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight
Summary: Drop a heart, break a name...
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Chloé Bourgeois, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: From Under the Eiffel Tower: Spin the Record [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2015888
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10
Collections: Miraculous: Spin The Record Challenge





	next to the mausoleum

**Author's Note:**

> we're going DOWN DOWN in an earlier round---  
> The "Sugar, We're Going Down" part. Accidentally fixated on two things - the jealousy and the fact that he's in a graveyard for part of it.
> 
> Warnings: past character death (Luka is a ghost, Emilie is how she is in canon), an Adrien didn't go to school AU, graveyards
> 
> Further chapters have more warnings but this is an introduction to the universe. Heavy stuff starts next ch.
> 
> Special thanks to Khanofallorcs for beta reading.

Adrien goes to visit her grave sometimes.

He got a stone for Emilie a little while ago, one commemorating her with no plot — if her body will ever be found, he will make sure to cremate it and scatter the ashes in the various gardens and parks of Paris.

But he’s never seen anyone else there before.

“Um. Hello?” he says.

The person is  _ see-through. _

Okay, a ghost. Ghosts are real. Ghosts are real, and Adrien can see them. But if he could see ghosts, then why can’t he see his mother’s? Why doesn’t he see her ghost floating around like he can see this random person’s?

Did his mother pass on to whatever was next? Is she not haunting?

Or...or should Adrien hope that she’s alive?

He doesn’t want to hope, in a way. He hasn’t believed she was coming back in ages. 

“You can...see me?” the ghost answers. The ghost is wearing two jackets, has short blue hair, and looks kind of like they would be a rock fan. “I haven’t met anyone that could.”

“I’m sure there are more out there — you just haven’t met them yet.” Adrien brushes the headstone. “I don’t…”

“You’re mourning someone. And I disturbed you, I’m sorry.”

“No, I could use the disturbance. I need to...get out of here. Before it gets too late and I won’t be able to get back to my house.”

“Okay. Come back again? I can’t...leave the graveyard. This is where I’m...grounded, I guess.”

“I will. What’s your name?”

“Luka.”

“My name is Adrien. It’s nice to meet you.”

And Adrien slinks out of the graveyard, transforming into Chat Noir to sneak back into his house.

* * *

Adrien has never had many friends. Chloe has been doing better ever since she and Sabrina had a talk about what Chloe was doing to her. Sabrina was never  _ his  _ friend, though. They just shared Chloe as a mutual friend.

Adrien wasn’t allowed to go to school — not after he got caught trying one September 1st. Luka is a welcome change,  _ different  _ from all the other people he’s known before. 

And then, one day, Chloe brings back Marinette.

Marinette is  _ amazing —  _ it’s clear that Chloe is only doing it to appease someone, and Marinette is only going along for...who knows why…but after an initial slip-up, he and Marinette get along  _ exceptionally.  _ It feels great to have another friend.

And, for some reason, he trusts her as much as he trusts Ladybug.

* * *

“Plagg, why can’t anyone else see Luka?” Adrien asks him one day. “He’s said that I’m the first person that ever noticed him.”

“You’re probably the only Miraculous user that’s frequented there before.”

“So if I brought Ladybug or Chloe, they would see him?” he asks. “Not that I would bring either of them, because Ladybug doesn’t want to know my identity and Chloe wouldn’t want to go to a graveyard.”

Plagg shrugs. “I know my holders are able to. It might just be a power of Destruction, it could be a Miraculous thing in general.”

Adrien swallows. “Okay.”

Not that he’s going to prove it. Not anytime soon.

* * *

“I want you to come with me,” he says to Marinette. They don’t get the chance to hang out often, but they take advantage of all the time they have. “It’s to show you something.”

Marinette’s summer break is going to end soon. And then they’ll have even less time. So he’ll show her this rendezvous now, so they can have it later on.

“A graveyard?” she asks, tentatively. “Why did you bring me here, Adrien?”

He realizes that they were holding hands while he led her here, and abruptly lets go. Despite the summer heat, his hand feels colder.

“My mother’s grave is here.” He purposely avoids saying that she is  _ buried  _ here, but Marinette will assume. “I bought a plot for her with my own money. My father doesn’t have a public grave for her, but I wanted a space I could go outside the mansion to mourn when I needed to. I come every once in a while.”  _ More frequently now that I know someone else is here. _

She kneels to look at the white stone.

_ Emilie Agreste. _

_ Mother. Wife. Beloved. _

And the two trademark rings of the Graham de Vanily family. He couldn’t afford anything too extravagant — he didn’t  _ want  _ anything too extravagant.

“It’s exceptionally clean,” she says.

“I’ve been keeping it that way. Every six months I come with a bucket and soap, so it gets visited at least twice a year.

“How long has this been here?”

He shrugs. “Just over two years, I think?” He measures everything from when he couldn’t get to school. The grave was before that, though not by long — his first concrete attempt at rebellion.

“Well, I think it’s miraculous.” She blushes. “That you’ve been doing this for so long. I mean, that’s almost as much as Ladybug and Chat Noir have been at it.”

“They’ll have two years on September 1st,” he says. The date is engraved in his mind for a variety of reasons. 

“Adrien?” They both end up turning towards Luka’s voice.

“Who are you?” Marinette asks. “What are you doing here?” She seems fearful, and scared.

Wait. Marinette has a Miraculous— oh, yeah, Multimouse. He wonders if temporary is enough. Because he’s a full-time Holder.

He’d need to bring Chloe to know for sure whether being a temporary holder is enough, but Chloe’s backsliding makes him less inclined to trust her, even if she’s one of his only friends. It kills him to see her doing it, because he  _ knows  _ she was making progress before.

But he has other people. He has Marinette, and Luka, and he’s even started to befriend Sabrina a little bit.

“Don’t be afraid, Marinette. This is Luka. He’s my friend.” Adrien smiles.

“It is very nice to meet you, Marinette,” Luka says, waving. “And to answer your question about what I’m doing here — I’m kind of stuck in this graveyard, because it’s where I died.”

**Author's Note:**

> I plan on uploading a part of the series every other day - which will take me through the rest of the year. Be sure to subscribe to the series, not this work, if you want to see more Spin the Record stuff.
> 
> And join me on the [Miraculous Fanworks Discord server](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) if you're interested in meeting a growing community of creators and Miraculous Ladybug fans - where we both hold informal challenges like this and more formal challenges like exchanges.
> 
> Follow me elsewhere:  
> alto-tenure / main Tumblr  
> beunforgotten / writing Tumblr  
> riverofliight / Twitter (inactive)


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